AN ACCESSIBLE USER INTERFACE, ALONG WITH A HOST OF FLEXIBLE FEATURES, MAKES PROCAM CONTROL SOFTWARE AN ASSET TO YOUR OPERATION. By Ralph G. Fernandez

30 GEAR SOLUTIONS • DECEMBER 2005 • gearsolutionsonline.com merican gear manufacturing companies are under increasing pressure to maximize productivity while reducing cost and obtaining consistent quality parts in order to compete with less- expensive foreign products. This is a complex problem that can be approached from many dif- ferent directions. One approach is to elevate manufacturing efficiency and quality through bet- A ter technology, encompassing innovative products and solutions that are readily available at affordable prices. With this goal in mind, the NUM Corp. has developed a family of cost-effective control solutions that are well suited to address all aspects of gear manufacturing. They are configured with a flexible and cost efficient combination of state of the art CNC motors/drives and user-friendly software. These solu- tions can be applied to new machines or used to retrofit existing gear manufacturing machines. The core of NUM’s gear control solutions is a flexible, conversational, and easy to use graphical operator interface software package referred to as ProCAM. It is used in conjunction with embedded CNC gear cycles and direct hyperlinks to CAD files or other pertinent gear production data to efficiently manufacture a diverse number of gears, or family of gears. The NUM ProCAM software package was designed primarily to address the requirements of universal vertical or horizontal gear , shaping, and form or threaded wheel grinding machines. The flexible structure of the soft- ware allows the operator to use conversational and graphical or ISO programming, or a combination of the two programming methods, if desired. The concept behind ProCAM is to provide a straightforward, easy to learn programming method for manufacturing a wide variety of gears. The machine operator is guided and prompted by pictorial infor- mation and questions presented on the CNC screen. Entry screens provide the operator with a com- prehensive graphical approach that depicts the hob or , the gear itself, and associated setup data in a clear and concise manner. The operator simply fills in the data fields presented on the screen. After the data entry session is completed the program is automatically generated, stored, and ready for execution. Step-by-step help guides, video tutorial aids, and graphical simulation further facilitate and enhance the programming operation. The result is a modular, easily modifiable program that will produce the desired gear or family of gears. ProCAM saves years of software development, while reducing significantly the machine operator’s learning curve. In fact, a relatively inexperienced machine operator that does not have knowledge of ISO code programming can successfully program sophisticated gears with ProCAM. Small quantities of gears can be produced cost effectively because gear set up time is reduced sig- nificantly with the ProCAM method. NUM application engineers familiar with gear manufacturing are available to help with system integration and automation, technical support, and training, if required.

Gear Hobbing or Grinding CNC The basic concept of gear hobbing or grinding is the generation of a tooth gear by advancing a rack- profiled (hob cutter or threaded grinding wheel) in relation to the rotation of the gear blank. The generation of the face width of the gear is accomplished by a continuous synchronized rotation of the tool and gear blank while the tool is advanced across the face of the gear. Hobbing entails either a roughing or finishing operation, and it is well suited for the manufacture of a large segment of differ- ent types of gears such as spur, helical, or worm gears.

gearsolutionsonline.com • DECEMBER 2005 • GEAR SOLUTIONS 31 An essential feature of the NUM gear hobbing or grinding CNCs Shifting Options: is a built-in electronic gearbox, which replaces the traditional • Incremental shifting mechanical gearbox. It provides the synchronization of the C-axis • Synchronous shifting (gear moves with shift) (table) to the hob/wheel spindle, the Y-axis (tangential), and the Z- axis (axial). The angular position of the C-axis is slaved to the Machine Control Functions: angular position of the hob/wheel spindle and the linear position • Automatic tailstock raise and lower of the Y and Z-axes. The electronic gearbox allows for the hobbing • Tailstock pressure or support of spur and helical gears, diagonal hobbing and grinding with syn- • Automatic work piece clamping and unclamping chronized shifting, and gear hobbing with a tapered cutter. • Automatic coolant on/off An automatic gear alignment function is another significant feature of the NUM gear hobbing or grinding CNCs. CBN or form wheel grind- Hobbing Cluster Gears: ing, as well as skiving or hard hobbing, normally requires this fea- • Unlimited number of sequential machining cycles ture. It provides the ability to align the hob or grinding wheel (tool) to (any combination) a gear (or work piece) to rapidly cut or grind a batch of gears, which already have teeth. With automatic gear alignment, only the first or There are six basic programming steps in creating a hobbing master gear needs to be manually aligned to the tool. The automatic cycle via ProCAM. These steps consist of defining the default, gear alignment function greatly increases productivity, reduces opera- hob, gear, setup, hobbing, and end of program cycle’s data tor mistakes, and improves parts quality. fields. The default data and the program end need to be defined only once at the beginning and at the end of the pro- gram. However, the other four steps can be defined multiple Creating a Hobbing or Grinding Program with ProCAM times for multiple hobbing cycles with different hob and gear The NUM ProCAM software for gear hobbing or grinding can be data. This is an effective method to program two different configured to handle a variety of hobbing or gears on the same shaft. configurations. The basic configuration has the X-axis or radial Help screens and operator aids can be called up during each of direction into the gear, the Z-axis or axial along the gear, the C the programming steps to facilitate the creation of a program for axis or table rotation, and the hob spindle. The Y-axis hob shift, “out of the ordinary” parts. An overview of some of ProCAM’s hob- and the A-axis hob angle are optional axes that can be config- bing programming steps with pictures of actual programming ured in the software, if required, and the Y-axis can be handled screens is shown on the adjacent pages to illustrate the simplicity as either a servo or a mechanical axis. However, hobbing fea- and user-friendliness of this programming method. tures such as diagonal cycles and gear alignment can only be used with a servo-controlled Y-axis. The graphical illustrations Straight or Tapered Hob and Tool Data within ProCAM can be configured to represent either a vertical or A typical data entry screen for straight or tapered hob and milling horizontal machine. tool data is shown in the accompanying illustration. Tapered hobs ProCAM creates a program or file through a building-block process. are used mainly for tangential worm wheel cycles or taper root In fact, an ISO program is created block by block by the NUM CNC spline applications. Milling are used for single indexing from the ProCAM conversational and graphical program created by applications. the operator. Each ProCAM page results in an automatically generat- ed “block” of corresponding ISO code. A single ProCAM page may result in as many as 30 to 40 lines of ISO code. The standard sets of NUM gear hobbing or grinding cycles work- ing in conjunction with ProCAM allows for the automatic implemen- tation of the hobbing and grinding processes. A general overview of the hobbing cycles, features, and functions available via NUM ProCAM are as follows:

One- to Four-Cut Axial Cycles with the Following Options: • Tooth modifications (offset or taper crowning) • Selectable dwell at start, in-feed, and end • Diagonal hobbing (taper root) • Single indexing • Radial in-feed • Automatic gear alignment to previous gear tooth • Automatic gear alignment to master gear Hob Shifting Data A typical data entry screen for hob shifting is shown in the follow- One- to Two-Cut Radial Cycles with the Following Options: ing illustration. A hob shift function is available in most hobbing • Worm gear cycle with or without tangential feed machines. Some use a servo-driven Y-axis, while others use a • Selectable dwell at start, in-feed, and end mechanical shifting technique. Depending on the machine design, • Automatic gear alignment to previous gear tooth the fields described in this section may or may not be completely • Automatic gear alignment to master gear applicable.

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www.gearsolutionsonline.comgearsolutionsonline.com • DECEMBER 2005 • GEAR SOLUTIONS 33 Setup Data A typical data entry screen for the setup data is shown here. The setup data allows the operator to choose the correct setup for the application. Each type of gear may require different methods of tailstock (mechanical or servomotor driven) or clamping. In addi- tion, after each gear is cut, the retraction distance of the cutter to allow for load/unload must be specified.

Basic Gear Data A typical data entry screen for basic gear data is shown in this illustration. The data entered on this page is used to define the location of the gear relative to the machine coordinate system and to declare the basic data about the gear to be cut.

Canned Cycle Data A typical data entry screen for the canned cycle data is shown in the accompanying illustration. NUM has developed a large variety of canned cycles, which can be used depending on the require- ments of a particular application. For example, some gears require climb cuts for a better finish, while others require conventional cuts. Others may require radial, tangential, or diagonal cycles. The “Radial/Tangential Cycle” can be used to plunge cut worm wheels or undercut sections of a gear. The “Radial/Axial Cycle” can be used to plunge cut splines, helical, spurs, and any type of gear cut from a blank or shaft. The “Diagonal Cycle” can be used to cut hel- ical, spur, or spline gears, as well as taper root splines.

Gear Tapers and Crowns A typical data entry screen for gear tapers and crowns is shown in this screen image. The data entered on this page is used to define taper correction and/or crowning for the face of the gear. When both taper and crown are defined the effect on the gear profile is additive. Two types of crown profiles can be generated: a standard crown, or a straight-crown-straight.

Machine Operator Panel Different types of machine operator panels are available, ranging from stand-alone panels that are mounted on the machine along with the CNC screen to an operator panel that is part of the ProCAM package. A CNC screen with a touch membrane is required when using the ProCAM panel. A typical data entry screen is shown in the following illustration.

34 GEAR SOLUTIONS • DECEMBER 2005 • gearsolutionsonline.com “THE CONCEPT BEHIND PROCAM IS TO PROVIDE A STRAIGHTFORWARD, EASY TO LEARN PROGRAMMING METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING A WIDE VARIETY OF GEARS.”

development has been incorporated into these products. But the goal has been consistent from the beginning: to offer our cus- tomers very flexible and cost-effective complete control solutions encompassing the following:

• A NUM CNC that is adapted to gear manufacturing requirements • NUM analog or digital servomotor and drive packages • User-friendly application software that allows the machine Intelligence for Machines operator to concentrate on the gear manufacturing process in “Intelligence for Machines” is a slogan that represents the lieu of having to concentrate on programming the machine essence of NUM products. The NUM family of controls solutions motions for gear manufacturing exemplifies this slogan. • Knowledgeable application engineers that can help the in the The NUM gear control solutions have evolved over the years as tech- application and training of the NUM control package and nology advancement in CNC, servomotors and drives, and software machine automation

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ralph G. Fernandez is president of the NUM Corporation. The sales department can be reached at (630) 505-7722 ext. 236. The company’s Web site is [www.num-usa.com], and the direct ProCAM link is [www.num-usa.com/products_app_main.htm].

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gearsolutionsonline.com • DECEMBER 2005 • GEAR SOLUTIONS 35